Wealth manager Mariner Holdings has taken a majority stake in Tortoise Capital Advisors, a Leawood, Kan.-based manager that invests in listed energy infrastructure such as pipeline and power companies. The buy-in is meant to expand Mariner's investment-management portfolio and give Tortoise opportunities to grow its fund and separate-account businesses.
Three-year-old Mariner, which is also based in Leawood, was founded by former employees of AG Edwards to provide investment- and wealth-management services to institutional and private clients.
Tortoise's managing directors Kevin Birzer, Zachary Hamel, Ken Malvey, Terry Matlack and David Schulte retain about 35% of Tortoise and will continue in their previous roles. Tortoise has also initiated an employee-ownership plan that, to start, allows four additional employees of the firm to purchase equity.
"The Tortoise team brings significant depth, including closed-end fund and separate account development and management, portfolio management, client services and operational support, which will provide a well established platform for continued growth," says Mariner's chairman and chief executive Marty Bicknell.
Financial terms of the deal were not made public.
Tortoise had approximately $2.3 billion in assets under management in five publicly listed investment companies and in private accounts at the end of August 2009.
Mariner manages about $1.1 billion across three separately registered investment advisories, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
